No Ordinary Hero Read online

  The first brick came loose with one blow of the hammer against the chisel. Not caring if she damaged it, she tossed it to the floor, where it made a surprisingly high-pitched thunk as it hit the cement.

  Bricks, she had noted over the years, had different voices according to how dense they were and the amount of firing they’d received. Differences in quality made for differences in voices.

  She scraped the remaining mortar away and saw that the wire continued to run behind the bricks.

  Great. She touched the basement wall behind and felt a definite dampness. This wall absolutely had to go.

  But she also felt a shuddering wave of relief. The thought she had refused to entertain just a short while ago while speaking with Emma surged up along with the relief. Nothing was hidden behind that wall. Nothing. There was no room. The brick she had removed had rested flat against the cement wall behind it.

  Feeling almost weak with relief, she leaned against the ladder and put her head down for a moment. How could she have even suspected such a thing? Too many TV shows, she decided. Too damn many.

  She was appalled that her own mind had even dredged up such a notion, particularly about a man she had worked with over the past several years. One who seemed nice.

  God! She lifted her head, telling herself to just head back to Mike’s and enjoy a nice dinner.

  And that was when she saw it. Looking along the length of the wall for the first time, perhaps aided by the work lights she had hung, she saw a definite bulge in the brick wall. Not huge, but as if something were pressing on it, working it slowly away from the wall behind.

  It was not big enough to conceal anything, but she was curious anyway. Climbing down from the ladder, she used her hammer, tapping gently along the wall, listening to the sounds. And when she got to the bulge, those sounds changed. Deadened.

  There was definitely something different back there.

  She tried rationalizing. Maybe someone had put this wall in because part of the basement wall had given way. But that didn’t make sense. As a repair job for that kind of problem, this was a terrible idea. Bricks just didn’t offer the same kind of strength. Even a well-mortared cinderblock wall with reinforcing rods would have been within the scope of a home handyman.

  Of course, during her renovation career, she’d found a whole lot of really strange repair jobs.

  Sighing, she tapped the wall again and heard that deadened sound. Why did she think this was going to turn into one helluva repair job?

  She laid the palm of her hand against the bulging bricks and felt dampness. Water was definitely getting in.

  And if water was seeping upward into the exterior wall, then she had truly big trouble on her hands.

  Feeling suddenly frustrated, she banged her hammer hard against the bulge. A brick cracked. She banged again, determined to know what she was up against here.

  Three more bangs and some of the bricks broke enough that she could pry them out with her hammer’s claw, and then she dropped her hammer to work with her fingers. At once she found wet mud.

  “Holy hell,” she muttered. She pushed her hand in a bit farther and felt tree roots, more mud, something hard and pitted. “What the…?”

  Water began to trickle out of the mud.

  “You shouldn’t have done that.”

  Startled, she fell to her hands and knees, then looked around to see Jimmy. “What are you doing here?” she asked, confused by his sudden appearance. “I thought you were coming back in the morning.”

  “I told you not to sleep here tonight.”

  The prickling on the back of her neck reached an uncomfortable level. “I’m not going to,” she said. And Jimmy looked…odd. Not like himself.

  “That wall could fall on you now,” he said.

  She glanced at it and realized he was right. Pulling out those bricks had destabilized it, and water was coming through the opening even faster now.

  “I’ll brace it,” she said. “In the morning we can rip it out. There’s a hole in the concrete behind it.”

  “I know.”

  That was the moment when the prickling turned to a chill. Trying to be furtive, she felt around for her hammer. Damn it, where had it gone?

  “It’ll be such a tragedy when they find you tomorrow,” he said.

  “Tragedy?” Her heart was racing like a horse’s at the end of a derby. “Why should there be a tragedy?” Although now she knew, absolutely knew, that her imagination hadn’t run away with her.

  “Buried under that brick wall you should never have tried to take down by yourself.”

  She poised herself, ready to spring. But before she could reach her feet, Jimmy ran at her carrying her sledgehammer.

  Oh, God! Somehow she managed to shove herself away from the wall just before Jimmy hit her. He hit the wall himself, and more bricks cracked.

  But it gave her time, just enough time to get to her feet. “Jimmy,” she said, pretending she knew nothing, “what’s wrong with you?”

  A weapon. She needed a weapon. Some way to protect herself from that sledgehammer. Some way to knock it out of his hands. Fast. She’d have to move fast.

  All she had was a utility knife. And her hammer… She looked away from him just long enough to locate it. Out of reach, at least right now.

  But he wanted her to be buried under bricks. So if she started to swing around in a way that would bring her back to the wall…

  She edged carefully, circling. He followed her, something at once intent and vacant in his gaze. A quick glance at the floor told her that she might be able to get him to the wet spot that was growing as water trickled through the hole in the wall.

  A wet spot that would be as slippery as ice, as she knew from experience. This floor in this basement had never been roughened. At some time or other, it had been covered with a smooth concrete coat. Perhaps with intent to paint it.

  All that mattered was that she might be able to get him to slip in that water.

  Taking a huge risk when she judged the time right, she jumped toward him. Instinctively he leaped back and hit the water. His feet slipped and he struggled for balance.

  Del kept right on charging, head lowered until she butted him in the chest. She heard the sledgehammer fall.

  And then she was on the floor, rolling around with Jimmy as he punched at her and then tried to get his hands around her throat.

  But hard work had made her strong. She shoved her forearms up between Jimmy’s arms and snapped them outward with enough strength that although she didn’t have the leverage to break his grip, he loosened it.

  She drew a deep breath then turned her head and bit him as hard as she could on his wrist.

  He yelped and let go, instinctively pulling away from the pain. It was enough to allow her to shove at him and try to wiggle from beneath him.

  She almost made it, then he came back at her, more enraged than ever.

  Damn, she thought wildly, falling hadn’t been a good idea. She couldn’t get leverage anywhere on her back. But then she realized one of his legs had fallen between hers. Gasping another deep breath, she yanked her knee upward as hard as she could manage.

  Jimmy howled and reared away from that awful pain. Struggling, Del managed to roll over, her hands clawing to find the hammer she’d dropped.

  She heard the scrape of the sledgehammer and knew Jimmy, nearly paralyzed with pain as he must be, had found his weapon again. Panic nearly swamped her, adding to her strength. She managed with a single shove to yank her legs from beneath him.

  If she could just get to her feet before he did, before he got enough leverage to use that sledgehammer…

  Oh, God, she had to get out of this. Who would take care of Colleen?

  Rage joined fear as fuel as she thought of her daughter. Scrambling, she got her feet beneath her, her gaze fixed on Jimmy, who was rising again, hammer in hand.

  Damn! She thought wildly, trying to weigh options, realizing that one blow of that sledgehammer would put her
down.

  “Del?” The call seemed to come from far away. It sounded like Mike, but it was too soon for Mike. Feeling like a threatened animal, she watched Jimmy straighten and realized there was only one thing she could do.

  With her legs still bent, her feet beneath her, she sprang at his knees, hitting him with her shoulder right at the kneecaps.

  And hit him hard. She lost her wind at the impact when she landed on her stomach. Her shoulder hurt almost as if it had been broken.

  But now Jimmy was on the floor again, on his back, unable to use that sledgehammer to any real purpose.

  Stand, she ordered herself. Stand. But she couldn’t catch her breath. Her body seemed almost paralyzed. And Jimmy had started to move again.

  God, why couldn’t she breathe?

  Then, the most welcome sound in the world. “Del? Del!”

  The thudding of footsteps on the wooden stairs. With a great gulp she finally gasped for air, and her limbs began to move again.

  And Jimmy reared up to his feet, staggering a little as he tried to lift the sledgehammer.

  And then the most beautiful sight in the world.

  Mike came flying by like a defensive end to make a rushing tackle. Like someone who had played the game and knew exactly how to do it.

  Jimmy fell backward again, with an oof as the wind was driven from him, and this time his head cracked on the concrete.

  And suddenly, unbelievably, everything went still.

  Chapter 11

  “D el? Del? Oh, God, honey, open your eyes!”

  Had she passed out? She didn’t think so. Groaning, she opened her eyes and realized she was facedown on cold concrete. She started to roll over, but Mike stopped her.

  “Wait,” he said. “You might be injured.”

  “My shoulder hurts,” she mumbled and kept turning over anyway, grimacing, but pretty certain she was just bruised. “Jimmy?”

  “He’s out like a light. But it won’t last. Cops are coming. Just don’t move. I need to be sure he doesn’t get up again.”

  “You were wonderful,” she said hazily. “Great tackle.”

  “I played a little in college. My God, what was going on here?”

  “I’m not really sure. He attacked me.”

  “I could see that.”

  Mike moved away from her as another groan sounded in the basement.

  Del lay staring up at the ceiling joists, coming down from the adrenaline, feeling weak and shaky. But when she heard the scrape of metal on concrete, she stiffened. “Mike?” Another wave of panic.

  “It’s okay,” she heard him say. “If he moves I’m gonna use this hammer on his head.”

  “Oh.” Why did she feel so woozy? Seconds ago she’d been more focused than almost any time in her life, focused on survival. Now she felt as if she couldn’t collect her thoughts.

  “The cops,” she said.

  “I already called them.”

  Wow, she must have blacked out for a minute or so. Moving carefully, she felt her head, but found only the lump from falling against the bed. “Did I pass out?”

  “I’m not sure. You weren’t responsive for a little while there.”

  “I got winded when I hit the floor.”

  “Or maybe the pain put you out for a short while.”

  After what she’d just been through, anything was possible, she thought. Shock. Pain. Lack of oxygen from her fall.

  A shudder passed through her and she winced as her shoulder screamed. The compulsion to get up off the cold, hard concrete was overwhelming, though, and she managed to push herself into a sitting position.

  “I’m not sure you should get up,” Mike said.

  “I need to.” She scooted over to the wall so she could sit leaning against it. Away from the brick wall where a steady stream of muddy water kept pouring onto the floor.

  Then, in the distance, she heard sirens. And finally the thud of footsteps upstairs. Moments later three deputies burst into the room: Sarah Ironheart, Micah Parish and Virgil Beauregard. All of them people she knew, for which she was intensely grateful.

  “Well, hell,” Micah said, taking in the scene. “What happened?”

  “Jimmy attacked me,” Del said. “And I think you’ll find his ex-wife behind that brick wall.” She lifted a hand to point. “Will someone please tell Colleen and my aunt that I’m okay?”

  Then she closed her eyes and leaned her head back. She was done. Finished. Kaput.

  “How did you figure that all out?” Mike asked as he sat beside Del’s gurney in the emergency room. X-rays had shown no broken shoulder, but she was waiting for a sling for her arm because it had become so painful to move.

  “Yeah,” said a familiar voice. “I want to know, too.”

  Del turned her head to see Gage Dalton, the county’s sheriff, in the doorway. “Hi, Gage.”

  “How are you feeling?”

  “I’m going to be fine as soon as they immobilize this arm. Did you guys find anything?”

  “Plenty. We found remains behind that wall. Sorry, your basement looks like a bomb exploded. I’ll make sure the county cleans it up once we’re done with the scene.”

  Del let her head fall back on the pillow and sighed. “I guess I’m homeless for a while now. Unless I move back into the other place.”

  “Move into mine,” Mike suggested. “Aunt Sally can go home then, and you can have my bedroom.”

  Del figured she liked that idea a whole lot more than she should.

  “So,” Mike repeated, “now we both want to know how you figured out there was a body behind that wall.”

  “Thank Emma,” Del said, looking at Gage. Emma was his wife. “I asked her to do some research for me. Mike and I found a diary belonging to Madeline James, and Emma was kind enough to look into it. She called me just before Jimmy attacked me, to tell me that Madeline had been married to Jimmy and that she left town fifteen years ago. Except for a few postcards right after she left, nobody heard from her.”

  Gage nodded. “Guess I need to question my own wife a bit.”

  Del managed a weary smile. “Anyway, that brick wall had been bothering me for a long time. And Jimmy claimed we had to stay out of the house because there was some kind of electrical problem. Only after he left, I couldn’t figure out how such a problem would have developed, especially since there hadn’t been one when we moved in, so I started looking around. I saw a wire running behind that brick wall, which bothered me because it might get damp behind there, and I pulled out a brick to follow the wire. The cement wall behind was damp, which meant water was getting in somehow, and then I saw the bulge in the wall, pulled out a few bricks, found dirt and water… But I’m running on. I admit I’d already had the ugly thought that maybe Madeline hadn’t just disappeared. And then Jimmy attacked me, and it was the only way I could put the pieces together.”

  Gage nodded. “Jimmy admitted it. He’s been trying to scare you out of that house since you mentioned you were going to get rid of that wall.”

  “Really?” Del felt appalled by the whole thing. “That man scared my daughter with creepy noises?” She started to sit up, furious, but Mike gently pushed her back.

  “Easy,” he said. “Easy.”

  “I don’t know about noises,” Gage replied. “He did say he kept moving things around when you weren’t there, trying to make you feel unsafe.”

  “All he did was make me think I was getting forgetful. It was the damn noises that brought everything to a head. How in the world did he make them?”

  “I don’t know,” Gage said. “Maybe he didn’t, but I’ll be sure to ask.”

  Del sighed and felt an infinite wave of weary sorrow wash over her. “No wonder the house felt sad.”

  Gage didn’t reply directly to that crazy-sounding statement, but Mike smiled faintly at her.

  “So you found Madeline?” she asked.

  “Yep. We certainly did. And Jimmy admitted it. Seems he found some postcards she’d written, apparently meaning
to send them just as she was leaving town. So he knew she was going, and he got furious and beat her to death.”

  “My God!”

  “Well, I don’t know if he meant to kill her. But one way or another, he did.”

  “He was beating her for a long time. I’ll give you her diary.”

  “That’ll be helpful.” Gage shook his head. “Anyway, when the deed was done, he panicked, hammered a hole in the basement wall, buried her, then put up the bricks. And he used the postcards she’d written, mailing them from Laramie, to cover.”

  Del shuddered, then winced as her shoulder hurt. “That’s so ugly. I never would have imagined Jimmy could do such things. At least not until tonight. But I still want to know how he made those sounds.”

  Gage leaned against the door frame and folded his arms. “What sounds?”

  “Scratching inside the walls. Doors slamming when no door slammed.”

  “I can’t imagine,” Gage said. “If he used some kind of sound system, you’ll find it when you tear out walls, won’t you?”

  “I guess. But I still want him to admit it.”

  “I’ll see what I can do. And I’ll try to clear out your house as soon as possible, but it might be a couple of days.”

  Del closed her eyes for a moment. “I don’t know if I want to live there anymore. My God, a woman was buried in my basement!”

  “But she’ll rest now,” Mike said quietly.

  Del looked at him and something in her heart, in her perceptions, shifted. “Yes,” she said finally. “She can rest now.”

  And maybe that was the most important thing.

  The sun was up when Mike took her home. Colleen was waiting impatiently and demanding to stay home from school. Sally, oddly enough, had packed her battered suitcase and announced she was no longer needed.

  Del hesitated. And Mike took charge.

  “You’re going to school, Colleen. Your mother can’t lift you right now, but I can, so we’ll skip your shower this once and I’ll drive you to school. And take Aunt Sally home.”

  Sally didn’t twitch a muscle, but remarked, “I put fresh sheets on your bed, Mike.” It was only as she headed for the door that she gave Del a knowing wink.